You should have successfully completed SOCU1031 Working and Managing in International Contexts and SOCU1025 Intercultural Communication, or approved equivalents before you commence this course.

Note: it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course.

For your information the RMIT Course Requisites policy can be found at: http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=twx09y07zi1c

Course Description

The internship is a situated learning activity that provides you with the opportunity to apply and further develop your learning about globalisation, language, cultural diversity and change. The integration of work based learning and academic learning, commonly referred to as Work Integrated Learning (WIL), will allow you to solve authentic industry problems or address real issues faced in organizations. You will be required to secure and satisfactorily complete a work-based internship placement in a professional situation in an international or cross-cultural context either in Australia or overseas. Internships should be between 40 and 80 working days. However, the meaningfulness of the internship is determined less by duration than by the quality of learning experiences afforded and the intellectual substance of internship preparations.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Upon successful completion of the course you will be able to:

Reflect on your ability to learn from the experience of professional practice

Research professional opportunities in the area that interests you

Live, work and learn in an unfamiliar professional and cultural context

Document, analyse and evaluate current professional practice in an unfamiliar professional and cultural context

Reflect upon your own professional practice and critically examine the factors shaping your own professional identity

Learn collaboratively with a chosen community of professional practice

Develop a network of professional contacts for internationally and or cross-culturally focused work

Establish links between lessons learned from professional practice and the knowledge gained from the core subjects, languages and the chosen electives

Overview of Learning Activities

Central to internship is learning by observation, participation in teams and undertaking work in employment or community organisations. This course will provide you and your class with the opportunity to receive industry feedback on your learning activities or assessment tasks. You may have opportunities to participate in workshops designed to assist you to plan, secure, reflect and write up your internship experiences. On-going mentoring is also provided on a one-to-one basis.

Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems. You will be given access to a wide range of resources through a Course Reader and also will be able to access to a wide range of online learning tools and content for your course from the student portal, myRMIT, and RMIT Library resources, and will have opportunities to engage with other students and teaching staff during your internship.

Overview of Assessment

Prior to the internship you will be required to develop an internship proposal and negotiate an agreement with a host organisation. All internship placements must have the prior approval of the International Studies Internship Coordinator.

You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your development against the program learning outcomes. Assessment may include an internship report, a workplace Supervisor’s report, posting of electronic postcards in the student portal, and an internship journal.

If you have a long term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or the Disability Liaison Unit if you would like to find out more.

Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies, procedures and instructions which are available for review online: http://www.rmit.edu.au/policies/academic#assessment